The kids had vacation over Chanukah, so one afternoon Ima told Noam and Elazar, "Abba's taking you guys on a walk" -- and so it was.
We left about 1:30, the weather is nice right now, not to cold, not to hot, overcast but no chance of rain. Mincha was 4:15 and sundown around 4:40 so plenty of time for a nice walk out in the desert beyond Mispeh
We have been to the deserted army base right past the catering hall a number of times, but this time we decided to see what was beyond the army base...
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| You can't really tell from here, but this is the roof of the army base. You can see the barren artilerary holders and the T shaped vent |
The first thing we found was a simple triangular structure which someone obviously uses to sleep in.
You can see that there is a sink with running water coming from somewhere. There is only a recently slept in bed inside with some personal items and a little rug, no other furniture and no one around. You can also see the smily face and the worlds כהנא צדק! "Kahana was right" written on the side. Political commentary is beyond the scope of this blog, but I thought I would point it out
Next we found the home of Elchanan and Moriah Entabi with two Chanukah Menorahs, one by the door and one on the side window. This one room structure made of chipboard had windows, potted plants outside and it seems like this couple actually lives here around the year. A great view, low prices and no noisy or annoying neighbors...
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| Front door facing South with the couple's name on the door and Menorah right outside opposite the Mezuzah |
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You can see on the right hand side a water/sewage pipe as well as a another pipe for the air conditioner condensation to drip out
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| What house is complete without landscaping. This is the side of the house with a window view facing East toward Jordan |
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| They seem to have a courtyard on the Western side of their house. The sign says ה' הוא המלך which means Hashem is the King |
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| Back of the house facing North . Not sure what all the old tires are for.... |
Abba also demonstrated how dangerous it was to get to close to the edge of the trails, by rolling one of the tires off to the side and watching it accelerate and bounce off of rocks while it rolled down the steep slope. I think the kids misunderstood the point I was making, because they thought it was cool and wanted to roll more tires down the desert dunes.
There was still more path beyond the Entabi's house so we kept on walking. On the way we past the following which looks like another outpost that was either dismantled or possibly destoyed. The wood also looks like it has been burnt. There was other large pieces of chipboard and other building materials
When we got to the end of the trail we ate our snacks and drank our water and took a few pictures. We could have continued walking, but it didn't seem to be a real trail, more like a footpath and it was much to steep and narrow for Noam, although I still had telephone reception out here. These pictures are all facing East with Jordan in the back and the city of Yericho to the left side of the picture beyond the desert. We took one regular picture...
one serious picture...
and one silly picture
We also took this picture behind us (westward) so you could see how much further it was (about a 7-10 minute walk). You can see the Army Base to the right of center on the hilltop, and the home of the Entabi family is that little rectangle down the hill to the left.
This picture is to the North. You can see the Givah, which is another "outpost" section of Mitzpeh Yericho, but at least it has a single lane paved road and caravans with about 30 families or so and one shul. The walk would be at least 40 minutes from where we were walking back around through the Yishuv
It drizzled for a minute or two on the way back and Abba caught a glimpse of a rainbow and shared it with Noam and Elazar
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